Re: [tied] Re: Names of god

The goddess's name is <il.a:> or <id.a:> (with a short <i>). As a common noun, this means "refreshment, comfort", or a libation prepared from milk. This is certainly a cognate of Avestan i:z^a:, given the complete identity of meaning. The formal relation is not quite clear to me.

In <agnim i:l.e purohitam ...> "I laud Agni the foremost (priest)", <i:l.e> is the 1sg. (with a middle ending) of <i:d.-> (Rigvedic <i:l.->) 'ask, request; praise'. I wonder if it is related to <is.-> 'seek, request' (<icchati>, Slavic *iskati, etc.): *is-d- > *iz^d- > i:d.-

Piotr

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Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 9:13 PM

Subject: [tied] Re: Names of god

--- In cybalist@......, "S.Kalyanaraman" <kalyan97@......> wrote: > What are the IE or PIE cognates? "a god" is ['eloah] in Hebrew and > ['ilaah] in Arabic. > > The first r.ca of R.gveda says: > agnim i_l.e purohitam > > What does i_l.e mean? Kubera is aid.a_vid.a or ailavila; godesses > names include: il.a_, mahi_, sarasvati_, bha_rati_. What is the > etymology of il.a_? There would be no I.E. cognates for 'eloah or 'a l-laah since Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic. Proto-Indo-Iranian *izhda_ results in Indo- Aryan i_d.a_ and Av. i_zha_ "sacrificial libation", though I don't understand why Avestan should have lost the "d" here (note that I'm using "zh" to represent a post-alveolar voiced fricative). In Vedic -d.- is replaced with -l.-. I assume that the goddess I_l.a_ is a personification of the libation. However Sanskrit also has the word i_d.ya- "to be worshipped". Both are supposed to be from the I.E. root *eis- which forms words pertaining to the sacred. -David